Turn the pair over to the Stuttgart Lions Club for the club’s annual drive for those in need. The community service project allows residents to turn in sunglasses, corrective lenses and eyeglass cases at local businesses from Feb. 14-28.

“We try to do this every year starting on Valentine’s Day,” President Dave Straus said. “The condition of the eyeglasses does not matter — the club will accept eyeglasses whether the pair is in poor or good shape.”

Once the drive is complete, the club will ship the collected eyeglasses to a Texas affiliate that repairs and catalogs the eyeglasses by the corrective lenses' size to internationally aid those who cannot afford glasses. Locally, the club also assists with the purchase of eyeglasses for those in need in the local school systems and community when requested.

“This is just fulfilling a part of what Lions is all about — ‘Knights of the blind,’” club member Nelson White said. “Our motto is to serve, and sight is our principal mission.”

The Stuttgart organization is part of Lions Clubs International, a service club organization with more than 1.35 million members in more than 46,000 clubs worldwide.

Straus said that, in 1925, Helen Keller issued all Lions club members the challenge to be the “Knights of the Blind” with Lions Clubs International working toward this goal by providing eye screenings, glasses and other treatments on the international, national and local level.

In past years, the Stuttgart Lions have collected more than 700 pairs of eyeglasses through the drive.